By Moonlight
by Squeeb100
Summary: "On the other side of the lake is a figure, a human. After a moment of closer inspection I recognize him (mostly by the hat, I admit) as the knight who escorted me here from Castle Town. Link, I believe. He's just standing there, gazing at the surface of the water." Oneshot. Link helps Ilia with her problems, and astronomy. LinkxIlia (LIlia?). Haters goanna hate.


**A/N: Another that I wrote last summer. My grandparents' border collie kept glomping me while I tried to write, though, so it took a little while. I love that dog, but he is a writer's worst nightmare. He stole my pencil.**

**SO, without further ado, read my shameless LinkxIlia fic. I have no regrets. I hate Ilia haters, so it's a nice little hate cycle that we have.**

**Please review. I will love you forever.**

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My bare feet brush over the floor as I creep across. I must have been used to walking this way in my past, for whatever reason. The door shuts with a heavy _thunk_ and I pause to cringe, holding my breath. Renado can't know that I creep away like this at night. He will prevent me from doing it again, and these insomniac wanderings are my sole reason for living at the moment. For a while it was Ralis, but now I have nothing to fret over besides myself.

When nobody comes to investigate the sound, and no noise is elicited from the Sanctuary, I take a deep breath. I love being outside, especially in the summer night air. It's the smell of cool, what I'm smelling, and I love it. It frustrates me immensely that I can't remember why. I continue on my way, sighing.

A raven releases its raucous call into the night air, where it reverberates over the houses and hotels before dying out. I'm nearly there now; half the battle is over if I have once again evaded the shaman. The moonlight spills from the sky into a silver trail, marking my path. I watch my feet take turns, propelling me forward in a never-ending cycle, closer and closer to the graveyard.

Suddenly the sheer mountain pass opens into the cool night air once again. I leave my pocket of warmth behind and shiver, whether with fear or cold I do not know. The graveyard is spooky, but it is my fortress of solitude. I have no idea what time it is. All I know is my name.

All I _remember_ is my name.

I have been warned not to come here, time after time, but something tells me that I should. The Sanctuary seems full of troubles, lingering there from all who have come to call on Renado for help. It is full of my memories, ever escaping my grasp, floating just near enough to tease me. I have been coming here for a long time to escape that, regardless of whether or not it is safe for a young girl. It is quiet here, and I have time to think. And I haven't been eaten by anything yet, which is a good sign.

Yet tonight, something seems different. No ravens are calling anymore. The tension has been growing here for a while, like some great evil is rising over the land, but until now I had dismissed it as my overactive imagination. But now, in the dark, my mind has plenty of free rein to be superstitious. The kind of feeling one gets when something is about to go wrong overwhelms me, and I stop, still as the gravestones I stand among, the hair rising on the back of my neck. It is silent.

Suddenly, my alarm sounds; a growl rises from behind me, and I turn slowly to see a beast standing there. It looks like a large dog...a wolf, maybe? The hairs along its spine are raised, and its teeth are bared. Its horrible, sharp teeth. I back away slowly, but a gruff bark rips from the animal's throat and I stop.

I cross my arms over my chest in a protective motion, closing my eyes as the animal bounds toward me. I hear its growls as it attacks, but feel no pain. I open my eyes to find that I am unharmed. I turn and see bones littering the ground, while the wolf takes on the final creature. It is a skeletal creature, reminiscent of a dog, but with teeth that are far too large.

The final monster is taken down and the wolf turns to me, docile as a lap dog. It presses its small, wet nose into my hand, and I realize that I have just unwittingly evaded fate itself. I stroke the animal's head once, but it turns away quickly and gallops into the darkness.

"Wait!" I call out, but the wolf quickly vanishes into the wall. _That isn't possible._ I creep over the wall to inspect. Indeed, at the base of the rough stone wall is a gap. I bend over, peering through, and there is a light glimmering at the other end. A passage.

I get down on my hands and knees, ignoring the dirt and leaves from who knows how long ago that will inevitably stick to me, and crawl through. As soon as I stand up on the other side, my breath vanishes. I am in a clearing...a clearing of water. The only land is on this side and the other, but the rest of it is a silver lake, moonlight saturating every drop of the water until it appears to be molten silver.

On the other side of the lake is a figure, a human. After a moment of closer inspection I recognize him (mostly by the hat, I admit) as the knight who escorted me here from Castle Town. Link, I believe. He's just standing there, gazing at the surface of the water.

He looks up, almost as if he has been expecting me. "Ilia," he calls, softly so that the silence isn't broken, but just loud enough so I can hear him. He beckons with one hand and before I know it I'm sitting next to him - soaking wet, having swum the pond. Link sits down, and I realize that he is wet, too. He must have swum over here not long ago. Perhaps just before I left the Sanctuary, or I would have seen him.

The moon and stars are reflected in the glowing water. What had he been trying to see in it, staring it down so intensely?

"It's pretty, isn't it?" he says suddenly. "It reminds me of where I grew up. I had a friend there, and she and I would look into the water in the evening, or even sneak out at night, and see the same constellations as we can now." Sentimentality lines his voice, and I wonder if he misses his home. I wonder if I miss mine.

"Do you miss your friend?"

"Yes. I miss her every day. I wish she would remember me, though, at least once."

"She doesn't write or anything?" I ask, and he shakes his head. "That's terrible. I wish I had friends that I could remember, but I hope that they wouldn't forget me." Link smiles. He has a good smile. A smile that I could remember.

He tears his eyes away from mine and looks to the sky. I follow his gaze and gasp again. Everything is beautiful tonight.

Stars are freckled on a black velvet canvas, randomly scattered balls of light. How could anyone ever name them all? Do they all even have names, or are some left out?

"Crazy, huh?" Link asks, coining the exact term for the sight. "Some of those are billions of miles away, but we can still see them. Some of those might not even be there any more – they might just be a trick, because it takes the light so far to get there. But we still think they are there, and we still dream of reaching them someday. We think it's possible."

"Mm."

"And there are so many constellations created by those stars."

"How does anyone remember those?" I ask. Renado has been trying to teach them to me. I am a bad student.

"It takes practice and time, but it's possible," he laughs. "That's Scorpio. And Orion, the Hunter. And the Great Bear, and the Big Dipper." He points out each one in turn.

I am in awe. "How do you remember all of those?" I ask, following his finger.

"It starts with knowing one of them. That can lead to the rest. Or, if you know a single star, it's easier to find all the other stars and constellations. My friend from home taught me that, and her mother taught her. See, there's the Little Dipper."

I stare at the place he appears to be indicating."Where? I can't find it!" I cry, frustrated. There are just too many stars.

"There. Look, see that really bright star?" I nod. He's being very patient. "Look in the area around it for a bit."

"How am I supposed to find something if I don't know what it looks like? If I don't know what it is?"

"Just look. I promise, you can find it."

I scan the sky patiently, and stop. I do know it – and it actually looks like a dipper! "I see it! I see it!" I cry triumphantly, bouncing up and down a little.

"Great. Okay. Now, from the corner there, look to the right in a straight line. At the end of that line, right there, kind of bright, is the North Star. Legends say it always leads you home. Or, at least, North." He smiled.

"She taught you that, too?"

"Mm-hm." He nods. "See, that one bright star led us to the little dipper, which led us to the North Star, which led us home. That one bright star. Like one strong memory." He looks at me knowingly, and I finally see his analogy.

"Oh." I pause. "Now I have to find that memory."

"I'll help you in any way I can. But I can't tell you anything; Renado says you have to figure this out on your own." He pauses. "Now go get some rest, Ilia."

"I will. Thank you." I stand and turn to go. I should be excited. I have a lead. But somehow the task seems harder than ever. How am I supposed to find something if I don't know what it is?

_Just look. I promise, you can find it._

"Thanks," I repeat, turning to address him again, but he has vanished. There is nothing there, but skulking away through the shadows is the form of a wolf. He turns when I speak, and his blue eyes widen in fear. He bounds away and melts into the darkness, stepping out of the moonlight.

"Thank you, Link," I whisper. "Your secret is safe with me."

Somehow, I know that that blue-eyed beast will help me remember more than my name.

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**So how did you like it? Did you even read the whole thing (I guess you did, if you're reading this)? Please review to tell me what I did will and PLEASE CRITICIZE CONSTRUCTIVELY. Yes. I just gave you permission. Go.**


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